Monday was our last day in the lower 48. The day went by so quickly. Tim and I began the day by driving to Idaho Falls to pick up a rental car. (Kia Optimas are really kind of nice.) We took the opportunity, while in Idaho Falls, to go clothes shopping one last time. We got back to Rexburg, packed our bags, ran a few last errands, and finished one last dentist appointment. We made it to the street festival in time to see the jump rope team perform and then enjoyed bumping into old friends. Unfortunately a sudden rain/wind storm cut the celebrations short. Our last few hours that evening were spent visiting as many people as possible: Yvonne and kids, Alex and family, Sarah, and Becky. I couldn't believe how many people I still wanted to see and time was already up. (Sorry if you were one of those people who didn't get visited.)
Tuesday started quite early. We were packed up and out of the house by 3:00 am, headed to Boise to catch our flight. In case any of you are wondering, Tim and I are very upset that Horizon no longer flies into Idaho Falls, it makes traveling to and from Rexburg a bit more difficult for us. We made it to the Boise airport without any hitches. Tim had his first experience going through a body scanner; luckily, I was spared the experience because the line was getting backed up. We made a stop in Seattle where we almost got bumped, but unfortunately made our flight in the end. ($800 in ticket vouchers would have been awesome.) By 1:30 pm we had made it to Anchorage.
I must say, Tim and I were very efficient in our "perishable items" shopping. We wasted no time getting from the airport, dropping off our bags at the Petersen's, borrowing the car, and getting to Costco. We knew exactly how many pounds of food we could fit in our coolers and purchased accordingly. We amazingly used all of our space and within pounds of our limit. I was pretty proud of ourselves. We even had time to go treadmill shopping, have dinner with our branch president and Elder's quorum president, and buy cell phones. Yes, we gave in and finally got GCI cell phones. GCI is the only provider that works in Togiak. I must admit, it is really nice having a cell phone again. Overall, Tuesday was a pretty full and productive day.
Tuesday started quite early. We were packed up and out of the house by 3:00 am, headed to Boise to catch our flight. In case any of you are wondering, Tim and I are very upset that Horizon no longer flies into Idaho Falls, it makes traveling to and from Rexburg a bit more difficult for us. We made it to the Boise airport without any hitches. Tim had his first experience going through a body scanner; luckily, I was spared the experience because the line was getting backed up. We made a stop in Seattle where we almost got bumped, but unfortunately made our flight in the end. ($800 in ticket vouchers would have been awesome.) By 1:30 pm we had made it to Anchorage.
I must say, Tim and I were very efficient in our "perishable items" shopping. We wasted no time getting from the airport, dropping off our bags at the Petersen's, borrowing the car, and getting to Costco. We knew exactly how many pounds of food we could fit in our coolers and purchased accordingly. We amazingly used all of our space and within pounds of our limit. I was pretty proud of ourselves. We even had time to go treadmill shopping, have dinner with our branch president and Elder's quorum president, and buy cell phones. Yes, we gave in and finally got GCI cell phones. GCI is the only provider that works in Togiak. I must admit, it is really nice having a cell phone again. Overall, Tuesday was a pretty full and productive day.
Our first round of boxes. Did you know you could fit so much on a 4-wheeler?
Wednesday morning we went back to the treadmill store and scored a deal. We asked for a particular treadmill we had been looking at the night before (which was on a really good sale). However, when the sales associate noticed it wasn't in stock, he offered to give us the upgrade for the same sale price as the original treadmill. We were pretty happy about that. To top it off when we dropped the treadmill off at Northern Air Cargo to be shipped to Togiak it cost $200 less than what they had quoted us the day before. We then picked up our perishable items from the Costco freezer, loaded them into coolers, and headed for the airport. Alaska Air doesn't charge baggage fees for the first three bags as long as your travel is solely within the state. Be warned though, they will still charge you baggage fees if you traveled on previous days under the same reservation outside the state. That was a bit of a bummer, but I guess if you balance it out with the treadmill incident earlier in the day, we were still ahead. We made it to Dillingham, had time to eat at our favorite Dillingham Chinese restaurant, and then flew to Togiak. Oh, it's good to be home. I thought I was in heaven when I sat on my own bed. I love coming home to a clean house . . . to my own clean house. It was so good to ride my 4-wheeler again too! One of the first things we did was get the vice principal to unlock the Connex for us so we could get our 4-wheelers out. We spent a couple hours that evening unpacking boxes, but then just had to go to bed and save the rest for morning. (We mailed ourselves 4 boxes of nonperishable groceries in May when we were in Anchorage.)
Some of our groceries for the year
Thursday we spent some more time unpacking and putting groceries away. We went "downtown" to the post office and the store and stopped by the library to see our coworker. One of our students saw us and came running over to tell us his big plans. He is transferring to Dillingham so he can get a better report to get into college and next summer will be going to Greece, Italy, and France. He was pretty excited to tell us his plans. I was really excited to hear that he had such big plans. We'll miss having him in class, but glad he's taken advantage of such good opportunities. We spent several hours at the school that afternoon getting our classrooms put together.
Friday and Saturday we also spent several hours at the school doing prep work for the new year. On one hand, thinking of the new school year is very overwhelming, because this time I know what I'm getting myself into. I know how much work and how hard it is. On the other hand, I am a bit relieved because my learning curve is so much lower. I know what to expect and get a second shot.
This morning Tim and I had to fly back to Dillingham for inservice. Traveling in the bush is not like traveling in the lower 48. Tim and I were told by our vice principal that we would be flying with AIA, Sunday, 9-10. That doesn't mean that we were taking off at 9:00 am and landing at 10:00 am. It meant that we would leave sometime between 9:00 am and 10:00 am. We left after 11:00 am. Most companies will send a driver to come get you from your house. Usually they call about 10 minutes before they show up. There's no buildings or check-in process at the airport, you just get out of the van and into the plane. This particular plane had 6 seats (including the pilot and copilot). When we arrived in Dillingham, the pilot drove us to where we needed to go (in our case, the Mormon church!).
There were a whole 10 people at church include Tim and myself. The Dillingham branch has always been small, but this week was particularly small. I'm not sure where everyone was. As soon as we walked into the building all attention was turned to us. The lesson was paused to find out how our summer was, how long we'd been back, if we knew of any other LDS teachers coming this year, what our new phone numbers were, and if we wanted to have a BBQ while we were here. After a few minutes, we resumed with the lesson, which was combined Relief Society, Priesthood, and Young Men. (There were no young women or primary children.) I love the Dillingham branch.
Tim and I have the rest of the day to ourselves. We'll probably spend time this evening catching up with all the other teachers from our district as they arrive. It's nice that we are no longer the new guys! I feel a little bit like I know what I'm doing this time around.
Friday and Saturday we also spent several hours at the school doing prep work for the new year. On one hand, thinking of the new school year is very overwhelming, because this time I know what I'm getting myself into. I know how much work and how hard it is. On the other hand, I am a bit relieved because my learning curve is so much lower. I know what to expect and get a second shot.
This morning Tim and I had to fly back to Dillingham for inservice. Traveling in the bush is not like traveling in the lower 48. Tim and I were told by our vice principal that we would be flying with AIA, Sunday, 9-10. That doesn't mean that we were taking off at 9:00 am and landing at 10:00 am. It meant that we would leave sometime between 9:00 am and 10:00 am. We left after 11:00 am. Most companies will send a driver to come get you from your house. Usually they call about 10 minutes before they show up. There's no buildings or check-in process at the airport, you just get out of the van and into the plane. This particular plane had 6 seats (including the pilot and copilot). When we arrived in Dillingham, the pilot drove us to where we needed to go (in our case, the Mormon church!).
There were a whole 10 people at church include Tim and myself. The Dillingham branch has always been small, but this week was particularly small. I'm not sure where everyone was. As soon as we walked into the building all attention was turned to us. The lesson was paused to find out how our summer was, how long we'd been back, if we knew of any other LDS teachers coming this year, what our new phone numbers were, and if we wanted to have a BBQ while we were here. After a few minutes, we resumed with the lesson, which was combined Relief Society, Priesthood, and Young Men. (There were no young women or primary children.) I love the Dillingham branch.
Tim and I have the rest of the day to ourselves. We'll probably spend time this evening catching up with all the other teachers from our district as they arrive. It's nice that we are no longer the new guys! I feel a little bit like I know what I'm doing this time around.
